


Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment - Phase II

by Jetplague



Series: Doctor Who: The War Doctor Chronicles [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jetplague/pseuds/Jetplague
Summary: The Doctor inadvertently walks into a trap as he answers a distress call near a remote desert planet. The last thing he had expected to see during the Time War was Sontarans, let alone to be captured by two of them. But, they have a sinister plan  and a very surprising reveal, one the Doctor himself was not prepared to discover.
Series: Doctor Who: The War Doctor Chronicles [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1087209





	1. PART ONE

Hovering around a planet near a binary sun, a ship sends out a distress beacon as it drifts slowly towards the atmosphere. In that beacon, a fragmented voice of a woman pleads for someone to help her. Over and over her message repeats, until the call is heard by the one person willing to come to her aid. Spinning wildly out in space, the familiar blue police box heads for the small space craft and signals back to the person with a message of his own.

"Hang on in there, I'm coming in to see what the problem is." The Doctor said. "Be with you in a jiffy."

The Tardis dematerializes out of space and then re-materializes inside of the derelict craft. Stepping out from the creaking police box door, The Doctor emerges into a badly damaged area full of wreckage, billowing smoke and fires dotting through the passage way. He disapprovingly gives a few clicks of his tongue and shakes his head at the sight of it.

"Dear me..." He grumbles. "Can't even be bothered to clean up for company. Guess they've been rather busy"

The impish Time Lord locked the Tardis door and strolled through the devastation as he searched about the ship for survivors. He took out his trusted sonic screwdriver and activated it. Like waving a wand of almost magician like skill, he tried to identify life forms that might be hidden on the vessel.

"Come out, come out where ever you are!" He said, in ajovial tune while speaking. "I'm here to help! Please, if you're there, come out where I can see you."

Nothing presented itself. The ship seemed abandoned and lifeless. The only noise was the metal popping from structural fatigue and snap from the warped walls that were now cooling down. The Doctor sauntered in further, hoping whomever sent the signal would appear as he continued to call out; but there was no one—no one at all.

He found a spot that wasn't so badly ruined and pondered about the possibilities. He wondered if they managed to escape, taking life-pods or having been rescued already, leaving the beacon on by accident. He also thought the crew might have perished, it would be the more likely scenario. Looking down the split corridors, not knowing which direction the command deck would be on, he gave a frustrated sigh and placed his screwdriver back into his worn brown leathery jacket pocket.

"Well, can't hang about here all day now can I?" Spouting the words loud enough just in case there was someone nearby. "Thanks for dragging me out of the time vortex for nothing! Cheery-bye!"

The War Doctor patted his coat gently for a second, spun his head for one last glance and proceeded to head back to the Tardis. He was almost within range when a sudden flash of light scanned his body. Pausing from the sight of it, The Doctor saw tree lights hidden in the side wall covered in metallic debris.

"Hello?" He said. "Someone there?"

The light stopped beaming on to him and abruptly switched off. The Timelord lingered for a second, thinking it wasn't finished yet. He'd been in situations like this before and knew there was always other events that followed being scanned. He had expected to see a cluster of armed guards to come barreling out of the shadows, or even single being with a gun pointed at his head asking, “Who are you? What are you doing here?"

But nothing like that happened (this time anyway).

"Look, if your going to shoot or stun me unconscious, you'd better hurry up, I'm a busy man."

Suddenly four glowing pillars appeared from out of the floor; they surrounded him with a growing hum of power building up. He confused by the sight of them and seemed unable to move out of the way in time. It was like he was paralyzed in some form of energy field.

"Oh no..." He uttered in realization. "I'm being transported! This is a T-Mat..."

Before he could finish that verbal thought, he vanished off of the ship.

––––––––––––––––––––

Materializing onto the planets surface, the Doctor instantly checked himself to see if every part of his body was with him. A sigh of relief came when everything checked out and then took in his surroundings. The world was desolate; a sand filled rocky environment that bore no plant life whatsoever. He turned about to continue to get his bearings, only to come face to face with a weapon pointing into his face. "Typical..." he thought. "Well, it had to be on the ship or on the planet I suppose..."

The being holding that weapon was all too familiar to the galifreian, they were a species he'd not run into for a very long time, and had thought they'd been too busy to show up in this part of the galaxy. All he could do was give a disappointed sigh and contemptibly say their species name.

"Sontarans, naturally...."

The grey helmeted warrior stood before him holding out his weapon in those tri-digited fingers poised to pull the trigger if the man moved a muscle.

"I have you, Timelord!" It hissed in factual delight. "You are now a prisoner of the great Sontaran Empire!"

"Not this again..." The Doctor be-musingly grumbled.

How many times had he been captured by so many enemies? It was becoming a tiresome scenario and loathed the fact that this lone Sontaran had managed to ensnare him.

"Quiet Timelord!" It said, shoving the small hand held laser weapon at him. He was barely audible from the helmet that encased his head. Only two small slit eyes adorned the rounded helmet, the Doctor always wondered how they could even properly could see out of them.

"Alright, alright... don't get excited." The Doctor said raising his hands up. "I believe the phrase, 'take me to your leader' apples here, yes?"

"Cocky, aren't you Timelord?" The being grumbled. "Now step off the T-Mat pad and follow me."

The Doctor looked down and noticed that he was indeed standing on a small metallic platform. The size told him it was portable and probably from yet another ship. From what he could gather, there was no other ship in the vicinity. It begging the question that he felt compelled to ask.

"Strange place for a device like this. Where's it from, exactly? I mean, you don't just come out into the desert and say 'now that's a really great place to put a T-Mat pad', eh?"

"It is from our secondary ship, Timelord." The Sontaran kept saying his name as it was offensive. "We left the main ship in orbit to lure your kind here, then set the transport trap for when you boarded."

"How interesting and ingenious of you..." The Doctor said, meaning it in total honesty. His expression quickly changed from mild surprise to puzzled concern. "But why are we so far away from the ship on the planet? Looking for a reason to get more exercise, are we? Or did did you just get the short end of the stick?"

"Silence, worm!"

"That's the answer I thought I'd get." The Timelord nodded while pursing his lips. "Right then, lead on my good sir, to your leader..."

"Commander," The Sontaran corrected him. "Commander Sarath is the brilliant strategist that outwitted you, scum."

"I see..." The Doctor shrugged. "Well, whomever, just take me there."

The Sontaran seemed put out by his reply and shoved the Doctor forward. They marched though the harsh sandy terrain; the Doctor, hands clasped behind him with a whistle of 'hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go', walked casually through the sandy dunes while his overly armoured captor kept his gun aimed at the quirky Timelord. 


	2. PART TWO

The walk though the desert land had been unseeingly long for the Doctor and his Sontaran aggressor; it was rather hot, dry, and the Doctor was becoming very parched by the conditions. The Sontaran was still marching along with his gun in hand poking at the Timelord’s back to keep him moving. That only made the Doctor more cantankerous. He finally stopped in his tracks and shouted at his unsympathetic captor.

“Will you stop tapping at me with that confounded weapon! It’s bad enough I’m tired and parched, but last thing I need is you poking at me with it!”

“Aw,” the Sontaran snickered maliciously. “Is the weak lil’ Timelord getting tired? It just proves to me how pathetic your kind is. Keep walking... prisoner...”

The almost contemptuous saying of that word seemed to spark something inside the Doctor, there was an underlying hatred for his people, but he couldn’t figure out why. The sontarans never really had malice of a personal nature towards the Galifrieians, true, they did try to invade his homeworld once, but that was more of a military strike than a emotional one. That gave the Doctor fuel for conversation.

“What do you want of me?” The war Doctor shrugged. “What’s this all about, eh? Did I foil your plans in some past or future life?” The soldier said nothing. His helmet prevented him from seeing the being’s expression. The Doctor grew impatient. “Why are we walking so bloody far from the T-Mat? Give me the courtesy of an explanation of that at least...”

“If it were up to me, Timelord, I would have executed you on the spot.” The Sontaran grumbled. “But it is the expressed orders of my commander that I take you alive and bring you back to our ship.” Hesitating to say more, the armoured soldier put his gun behind his back (in a holster for it), and removed his helmet. The wide rounded head and small beady like eyes were the normal features for their species. They were a race of cloned military minded beings that always bore the same face, a slight variation perhaps tended to occur, though not too much to make it obvious, but typically, the resemblance would always be the same.

“I am lieutenant Straks of Alpha Brigade 97-2, and my duty is to my Commander.The strategy was to use the orbiting alien ship as a lure, rig the T-Mat for Timelord DNA, bring you to the surface and rendezvous back to our main vessel.” He stared down at the Doctor as he finished. “Our ship had to be out of sight and undetected so that you, Timelord, wouldn’t be able to detect it and retreat from the planet.”

“An interesting strategy...” The Doctor said. He mulled it over in his head as briefly glanced away for a moment. “And I would have detected your ship had the Tardis been close enough to that area...” He looked up again, catching the smug grin of Straks. “But how did you know just any old Timelord would come looking? They've never really bothered with helping any distressed ship since... well... ever.”

“Commander Sarath assured me that only one would ever answer the call, the one who was the softest and cowardly of the lot of them.”

“I see...” The Doctor said. “I’m not really sure if I should be flattered or offended by that.”

“Makes no difference to me, you targarian turd,” Straks passively grumbled. He put his helmet back on and retrieved his gun. “You can ask the Commander about it when we get there. Now...” He motioned the weapon at him. “Start walking, and this time, no more rest breaks.”

Giving a slight sigh of frustration, the Doctor hesitantly agreed and continued on. This time, the soldier started barking commands at him, “Left! Right! Left! Right!”, it made the Doctor roll his eyes and shake his head in disapproval.

“Sontarans...” He uttered with malice.

* * *

Hours later, they finally had reached their destination. They were stepping over the crest of a massive sand dune, when the familiar shape of the Sontaran vessel came into view. The Doctor knew the type instantly. This was a Sontaran battle class vessel; the orb like shape and thatched-like design gave it away, but it was fairly larger and sported dark slit windows along the top section. It always looked like a giant golf ball to him, the Sontarans ship design was as cloned as their people—just like them, boring and predictable.

But this one seemed slightly different. The red markings on the side made the man pause in his tracks. He had seen that iconic symbol somewhere before. Straks pushed the Doctor with the butt of his gun, and pointed at him to keep moving. When they reached the bottom of the dune and came closer to the ship, the Doctor’s memory kicked in.

“That’s from the military base on Varga Five...”

“It is...” Straks acknowledged. He seemed vaguely impressed this Timelord knew of it. “How did you come to know that, I wonder?”

“Secrets tend not to be secrets anymore when bases like that get the full attention of the Dalek fleet.”

“Only because the Cybermen started attacking first.”

“Ah yes...” The Doctor nodded. “The final clash of the Titans, eh? Those were the early days of the Time War.”

“So it seems.” Straks scoffed. “And where were the Timelords? Huh? We sent out a call and none came to help us. Sixty legions of troops wiped out in mere minutes, with no Battle Tardises in sight.”

“If I recall,” the Doctor smirked at him. “That base was home to many secret experimental facilities. Lots of black projects that just seemed to cry out ‘come and get me’ to both Cybermen and Dalek alike.”

Straks aimed the gun at the cheeky Timelord’s head. “My comrades, my platoon, my whole Sontaran brethren were destroyed on that base! And you Galifriens did nothing...”

“That’s enough, Straks!” A voice called out.

Stepping out of the Sontaran ship was yet another Sontaran. This one was much different though. The uniform was of a different colour, a brushed copper hue that sported the red symbol like the ship had, and the armour was more bulky in the front. The copper-chromed sontaran’s helmet looked slightly smaller and rounded. The Doctor was fascinated by this change of design and seemed puzzled by it.

“Forgive me, Commander Sarath!” Straks said, saluting with his free hand. “I have brought the prisoner. Everything happened just as you strategized.”

“Excellent, well done Straks, the next phase can begin.” Commander Sarath nodded. “I welcome you, Doctor.”

The Doctor took note ofthe voice immediately. It sounded less like the usual Sontaran macho raspy one he’d come to know. This commander had a voice that was less than normal, especially for a Sontaran.

“No, that’s not my name any more...” The War Doctor quickly dismissed. “That man no longer exists.”

“And yet,” Sarath snickered. “You answered the call, my trap to snare the one Timelord that will change everything about this war. One who will bring me and all sontarans to glory.”

Disgusted by the thought of being something in their plans, whatever it would be, the Doctor outright refused to aid in their endeavours. The Commander held out a hand to stop Straks from nearly striking the man down were he stood. The disrespect was more than the soldier was willing to forgive. Straks obeyed and stood back at a distance to calm himself down.

The Doctor and Sarath glared at each other for a moment. Neither one willing to make the next words to each other. But the Doctor always had to break the silence, he had to know more of what was going on, especially when he was at the center of it

“So what do want of me then, eh? What’s this next phase you two have concocted for yourselves and all of Sontarans? Are you going to try to get me to persuade the Timelords to join forces? Well it won’t work...”

More silence occurred as the Commandef said nothing back. It made the Doctor grumble and let out a long drawn out sigh. Sarath looked at him, then over to Straks (who removed his helmet and nodded), and then looked back at the Doctor.

Placing hands on either side of the helmet, Sarath twisted it slowly until the air rushed out and then lifted it off.

The Doctor gawked at the being in surprise. It was Sontaran to be sure, slightly less potato head-like, but what he didn’t expect to see was—a female one. She had a crop of chestnut brown hair, brown eyes, and effeminate features that were almost fetching, for a Sontaran, that is.

“Oh my goodness…” He uttered, the stunned expression not leaving his face. As he peered closer, he suddenly realized of whomshe reminded him of, and his jaw dropped further. “No, it can’t be. You... you look like... Sarah...Sarah Jane Smith.”

She did indeed bare a striking resemblance to his forth incarnation’s companion.The Doctor, continued to gawk at her as this hybrid version (Sontaran/Sarah) smirked at him. How this was possible escaped even him in that moment.


End file.
